The driving forces of natural selection leave their traces in the shapes of living creatures and their patterns of distribution. In this thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion of evolutionary process and adaptive response, Geerat Vermeij elucidates the general principles that underlie the great diversity of marine forms found in the world's great oceans.

"This Darwinian book—there is hardly higher praise—is a step towards understanding, which will probably challenge our technical methods more than the broad insights of that clever naturalist on the Beagle did." - Scientific American

"A valuable addition to the literature and represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the ways in which biological interactions influence the structural design of living organisms." - Nature